ITZ, Division of Ecology and Evolution, Stiftung Tieraerztliche Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e34682. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0034682. Epub 2012 Jun 7.
Among gene families it is the Hox genes and among metazoan animals it is the insects (Hexapoda) that have attracted particular attention for studying the evolution of development. Surprisingly though, no Hox genes have been isolated from 26 out of 35 insect orders yet, and the existing sequences derive mainly from only two orders (61% from Hymenoptera and 22% from Diptera). We have designed insect specific primers and isolated 37 new partial homeobox sequences of Hox cluster genes (lab, pb, Hox3, ftz, Antp, Scr, abd-a, Abd-B, Dfd, and Ubx) from six insect orders, which are crucial to insect phylogenetics. These new gene sequences provide a first step towards comparative Hox gene studies in insects. Furthermore, comparative distance analyses of homeobox sequences reveal a correlation between gene divergence rate and species radiation success with insects showing the highest rate of homeobox sequence evolution.
在基因家族中，同源异型基因（Hox genes）受到特别关注，而在后生动物中，昆虫（Hexapoda）也因其在发育进化研究方面的重要性而备受关注。然而令人惊讶的是，在 35 个昆虫目中，有 26 个目尚未分离出同源异型基因，现有的序列主要来自两个目（61%来自膜翅目，22%来自双翅目）。我们设计了昆虫特异性引物，并从六个昆虫目（Lab，Pb，Hox3，ftz，Antp，Scr，Abd-A，Abd-B，Dfd 和 Ubx）中分离出了 37 个新的同源异型盒基因座（Hox cluster genes）的部分序列，这些序列对昆虫系统发生学至关重要。这些新的基因序列为昆虫同源异型基因的比较研究提供了第一步。此外，同源盒序列的比较距离分析显示，基因进化率与物种辐射成功之间存在相关性，昆虫的同源盒序列进化率最高。
